Understanding Intra-organisational Information Dependency: An Empirical Network Analysis of Vietnamese Freight Forwarding Industry

Abstract

The use of timely, accurate, and relevant information is crucial for supply chain performance. Within business firms, executives and managers depend on demand and inventory data to make decisions for business operations. In this technological era, many firms are reliant on technological platforms to share mission critical information between their business units to prevent bullwhip effect due to information lag, and to improve coordination and collaboration among the units. Extant literature reveals that there is a strong research emphasis on information sharing practices between firms, and little on the information sharing practices within the firms for supply chain efficiencies. There is also limited research done to understand the impacts of information quality e.g. sharing mechanism, accuracy, timeliness and relevance have on the management of supply chains. Research often tend to focus on information sharing practices in modern businesses that utilises sophisticated IT systems for supply chain management, and neglects the business firms that operating in less developed environments. To investigate implications of information quality on supply chain efficiencies, this paper utilises social network analysis (SNA) to study information flows in the firms that operate in the Vietnamese freight forwarding industry.